Paris deal to receive boost at UN event

President Maithripala Sirisena handed over the instruments pertaining to entry into force of Paris Agreement on Climate Change to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today at the United Nations General Assembly.

Signed by 375 members of the National Academy of Sciences, the letter explicitly refers to “the Republican nominee for President” and notes that “such a decision would make it far more hard to develop effective global strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change”.

Countries representing just 7.22 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions now need to lodge their ratification documents with the United Nations for the Paris Agreement to reach the 55 per cent of global emissions threshold and turn the agreement into a formal treaty.

According to the United Nations, 30 countries are expected to formally join the Paris agreement during Wednesday’s event at the UN.

However, in order to be a supporter of the Paris agreement, you must first believe that climate change exists.

Sri Lanka ratifies Paris climate agreement at UN Wed, Sep 21, 2016, 08:53 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka. Specifically, it seeks to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In Paris in December 2015, nearly 200 countries agreed to slash greenhouse gases and keep global temperature rises to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. To date, 60 countries have expressed their consent for implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Slovak Environment Minister Laszlo Solymos said he hoped this could be achieved by the time of United Nations climate talks in Marrakesh, Morocco, scheduled for November.

“Faced with challenges like migration, a desire for greater control of their country, and a mounting sense that globalisation is leaving working people behind, they demanded a politics that is more in touch with their concerns; and bold action to address them”. “It’s actually possible in this area of climate change to move the worldwide community in a significant way”. Some of the world’s major economies have already ratified the Paris deal. The UNFCCC describes the agreement as an historic effort to “to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future”.

The letter was released on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that last month’s average global temperature was 61.74 degrees F, which is 1.66 degrees above the 20th-century average for August. “Its a sign of the strong global consensus behind the Paris Agreement.”.

Jill Duggan, director of the influential Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group (CLG), said the rapid progress achieved in the past year towards an ambitious worldwide climate change treaty was hugely encouraging for green businesses. Many treaties take years, sometimes decades, to go into force following initial negotiations. This rapid pace reflects a spirit of cooperation rarely seen on a global scale.

US President Barack Obama, during his last speech to the UNGA, called on the worldwide community to keep working together to solve global issues including climate change.